Comparison and reviews of the best radar detectors.

What is the best radar detector for Australia?

We have tried to avoid answering these question directly as "best" can mean different things to different people, and it also depends largely where you drive. What you should really be asking is, "What is the best radar detector for me?" Often an international review has little or no relevance to radar detectors used in Australia. There really is no such thing as "the world's best detector," again it depends where in the world you are. Some reviews show Ka-band 33.8 that is not even used in Australia, but also only older model radar detectors. We have 33.8 Ka-band radar equipment in our office and can easily show significantly longer range than shown in these misleading reviews and comparison charts if anybody is actually interested.

Our policy has traditionally been to provide a comprehensive range of radar detectors at the best possible prices. Typically we provide the product specifications and allow our customers to make an informed decision. We remove the risk of buying an unsuitable radar detector for you by providing a unique no-fuss exchange program. If you purchase a radar detector from Australia's only radar detector superstore, and for any reason change your mind within 7 days, you can simply swap your purchase for another brand or model and pay the difference (conditions apply.) Some suppliers may advertise a money back guarantee, but this is usually if your purchase has been unused and unopened, e.g. pointless. We want you to be completely satisfied with your purchase and this is achieved by properly setting expectations and answering all questions up front. Besides, you can also visit our radar detector superstore in Morley Perth, and see most popular products in person and discuss your requirements in person.

The internet is inundated with reviews and videos of radar detectors, however these reviews concentrate solely on the absolutes of detection range and little more, awarding a 5 star rating to a radar detector simply because it had the longest range. Many tests made in the USA, particularly in Ka-Band (Multanova) are on frequencies not used in Australia and significantly stronger signal strengths that are much easier to detect. So clearly these tests are not a true representation of performance and detection capabilities when used in Australia. Properly informed and presented with the real facts it is much easier to buy a radar detector in confidence. Here is what we think comprises the best radar detectors for use in Western Australia;

We believe once you consider all aspects of your radar detector purchase, the decision is much simpler and the "best" radar detector may in fact be different for some people. Clearly there is no such thing as the "world's best detector" and that many foreign reviews are either out of date or largely irrelevant here in Australia. Also, it is interesting to note that many "reviews" are sponsored by a radar detector distributor or actually contacted by particular suppliers. Need we say more?

Detection range of Australian Multanova Ka-Band 34.3 speed cameras.

We have all seen test results on various web pages referring to detection ranges showing 10+ miles. This is all well and good against high powered police radar devices like hand guns and mobile equipment fixed to vehicles. To an extent this does apply to detection of mobile radar on police patrol cars here in Western Australia. Most police patrol cars in Western Australia, if fitted with mobile radar, are usually K-Band although some have been spotted with Ka-band also. There is no hand held radar used in Western Australia. All hand held guns are laser based requiring a laser jammer for protection. Detection of the Multanova photographic speed camera used prolifically in Western Australia is extremely difficult and less reliable. The Multanova camera operates on a European frequency that is not used in the USA, Ka-Band 34.3 and is also very low powered. This makes it difficult if not impossible to detect with a budget radar detector, or a brand designed predominantly for use in America. Radar detectors such as Whistler and Valentine One that incorporate Euro mode programming have measurable advantages in detecting a Multanova.

A single video is not a true representation of a radar detector's performance. We have also seen the odd single video of super detection range on most radar detectors, however 500-600 meter consistent detection against a Multanova camera is unrealistic and definitively not common, in fact we can not even replicate these results ourselves. This is setting false expectations to the customer. If you expect to see this performance on a regular basis you are in for a rude shock. Our claims are backed with many substantiated documented results and are based on consistent averages. We also notice that some home videos are taken with radar detectors illegally mounted in the centre of the windscreen, resulting in a $50 fine if caught. Mounting a radar detector high sometimes results in better performance, depending on your vehicle and windscreen tinting. All our test videos are taken under normal driving conditions with typical mounting locations of the radar detectors unless stated otherwise. One extra-ordinary performance video can not reasonably be accepted as typical detection capabilities. If these super long ranges were typical, there would be more than one video available and videos in different locations on different days.

Some brands and suppliers make fancy, unjustified and outrageous marketing claims like "10x the range of imported detectors" however we are yet to see this even once. Technically this would mean they have some 2~3km range against Multanova which is clearly not the case at all. If you purchased a radar detector believing this to be the case, you are legally entitled to a full refund.

High performance radar detectors are carefully tuned and state of the art equipment. Manufacturers are constantly refining and improving their designs to tweak the best possible performance and protection. Reviews are often obsolete shortly after publication as manufacturers react to test results and are quick to fix problems or make improve where possible. Beltronics, Valentine One and Whistler radar have all released updates recently, often resulting in increased detection range. Whistler Pro-78 and Whistler XTR-690 have undergone three major updates since being released middle of 2007. Various independent reviews suggest Whistler Pro-78 alerts sooner than Beltronics STI on Ka-Band.

"Particularly with Ka from the front, when compared to one of the Beltronics STi Drivers, when POP was OFF, the Whistler Pro-78 tended to be the first to respond" Veil Guy review.

Many factors influence detection range including atmospheric, type of radar, radio interference, camera setup, other vehicles on the road etc. Detection range can therefore vary from location to location and even day to day in the same location. Our videos are usually taken at the same time and place, against the same camera to ensure all conditions are as similar as possible. Overall Whistler Pro-78 with Euro mode alerts in line with Valentine One, if not better against Multanova. Both the Whistler Pro-78 and Valentine One noticeable outperform the Beltronics STI. From user feedback and our own tests we know that Beltronics STI seems to have intermittent Multanova detection, meaning detection range varies considerably. Here is what we saw;

Extra videos were taken at the same location, but the video that showed the same or equal same maximum detection was used.

Valentine One when in EURO mode does NOT detect some KA-band frequencies such as 35.5!

Competitive and realistic retail pricing when sold in Australia.

You do not necessarily need to spend the most money to get the best radar detector for use in Western Australia. Our customers are often thankful that we do not insist they buy the most expensive radar detector and are often astounded in the value found in other brands like the Whistler Pro-78 radar detector or Whistler XTR-690 radar detector. In fact, some brands like Escort and Valentine1 are artificially expensive when sold in Australia as neither manufacturer officially exports from the USA meaning any person offering Valentine One or Escort 8500x50 or 9500i radar detectors in Australia is simply buying them retail in the USA and reselling them here in Australia; this is called grey marketing. There is no bulk or distributor discount, this results in a higher price in Australia as there is no established pricing structure or support. A typical driver would never received $800~$900 worth of speeding fines in their life! So spending $850+ on a radar detector with only a 12 month warranty is a ludicrous proposition to the typical retail radar detector customer in Western Australia. Just because a radar detector costs more clearly does not mean it is necessarily any better for our unique conditions in Western Australia. Prices quoted here were accurate at 31/1/08 and subject to change.

Factory based, local warranty, service and support, length of warranty.

There are only two brands of radar detectors officially distributed in Western Australia, with local warranty, service and support. We are the only authorised Australian Whistler radar detector distributor. We know a small operator in Sydney claims to be an authorised Whistler distributor and repair agent and also a Valentine One distributor and repair agent, both of these claims are entirely false. Whistler radar detectors are the only brand to come standard with a 3 year warranty. Every other brand of radar detector comes with only a 1 year warranty. Some brands like Escort and Valentine One explicitly do NOT honour warranty, service or support to clients outside of North America. This means if your part time Escort or Valentine One retailer disappears, you are left with absolutely no warranty.

Escort or Valentine One radar detectors with no factory warranty in Australia need to be returned to Canada or the USA for service or repairs. This can only be done by the person you purchased from. Authorised Australian supplied Whistler radar detectors are SWAPPED or REPAIRED right here in Perth. You will not have to wait months for a repair under warranty (or even outside of warranty.) What exactly is included in a warranty? Does it get repaired or replaced in Australia, or does it need to be returned overseas leaving you without the protection of your radar detector and for how long? Access to local support is also a major consideration. We often hear from customers who are unable to contact their supplier who has disappeared from the Quokka or has no physical address on their web page. Little wonder some suppliers often don't even answer their telephones.

Of equal importance to warranty duration, is warranty accessibility. Valentine One have a long standing policy of not exporting from the USA. This means all Valentine One radar detectors sold in Australia are grey marketed products. A supplier in Australia must use an agent in the USA who in turn purchased from Valentine One. If your Australian supplier or the agent used in the USA decide to disappear or no longer offer warranty support, then you are left with a very expensive paper weight. Both Whistler and Beltronics have local warranty support. To our knowledge Whistler radar detectors are SWAPPED or REPAIRED right here in Perth, it is our understanding that Beltronics products are returned to Canada for repair and serving which can take some months. We are happy to stand corrected if this proves not the case.

Usability including standard features, alert presentation, programming etc.

Easy of use and user friendliness is something that carries much weight in consumer electronics, home entertainment, computer and car industry reviews. Yet to our knowledge, does not feature in a single radar detector review - or perhaps we have just missed it. There is little point using "the best detector in the universe" if it suffers from excessive false alerts and it is difficult for the average user to determine a genuine police threat and the review has little relevancy to Western Australia (e.g. different radar frequencies, different climates.) Some brands have clear voice alerts and large informative display screens (like Whistler, Beltronics etc.) While others like Valentine One have a slanted display that is difficult to read in a right hand drive vehicle and even more difficult to determine what threat is being displayed. At night with a Valentine One it is nearly impossible to hear the difference between a K and KA band alert (no voice messages) and a single tiny LED shows K or KA band which is unusable at night as the label on each LED is dark!

Valentine One wins many accolades for it's detection capabilities, but in our opinion is only suited for a seasoned or experienced radar detector user as it is much more complicated to program and also use. In comparison Whistler is extremely easy to use and also program, has a clear and easy to read display during the day or night time, clear voice alerts and the programming menu is simple and easy to navigate. Beltronics STI also has a quality display and many programmable features and voice alerts. Beltronics was very near to having 5 stars for usability however it's double use of function buttons during programming the comprehensive settings could have been improved. Beltronics is however, a very configurable product.

What a popular review had to say about Valentine One features "Signal strength is depicted by beep frequency and a row of eight red LEDs. Band ID is handled by four more red LEDs stacked vertically. Identical in colour and closely spaced, they can be difficult to identify at night, making the audio doubly important for band ID. Audio tones for X-band and laser are excellent but K- and Ka-band are a mite too similar for easy comprehension. Veteran users won't have any trouble but newcomers will need time to learn them."

"Valentine Research, little more than a storefront boutique outfit, is so tiny that the industry trade association doesn't even bother to track its sales. Best estimates are that Valentine accounts for 0.9 percent of total industry sales."

"Other than now being housed in the old case and having received occasional subassembly replacements and some software tweaks, the latter most recently in 2002, it has remained largely unchanged since George Bush (not Dubya, we're talking the first George Bush here) spent his last year in the White House. With a detector's lifespan averaging 18 months these days, as the most expensive unit tested, the V1 would have to offer a dazzling array of virtues and world-class performance to make the cut against the far more modern contenders in this test."

"The (Valentine One) lever controls volume when the unit is muted, the multi-function knob controls power, volume and mode selection, a lot of tasks for one switch and the reason why V1 basic mode changes take more than twice as long as they do on both competing models."

Both the Whistler PRO78 and Beltronics STI have voice alerts and support the Safety Warning Services used in Western Australia.

WARNING: Valentine One radar detectors have NO voice alerts and do not support the Safety Warning System that is used in Western Australia. The lack of SWS features in the Valentine One is a major consideration that can not be over looked easily. The Valentine One radar detector was called "the chicken little of radar detectors" by Autoweek Magazine USA due to its excessive false alerts that cause the average user to simply tune out and turn their Valentine One radar detector OFF.

Management of false alerts and reduction of false alerts.

A common complaint from radar detector user's are "false alerts." These should really be called "non police threats." A radar detector is programmed to alert the owner of a radar emission that falls within the specifications set. Unfortunately some of these radar frequencies can be used for any purpose, not just police purposes. This primarily occurs with K-band radar. Common use of radar frequencies include shopping centre automatic doors, service stations, road traffic monitoring equipment, other radar detectors and so on. Modern radar detectors have a feature called "City Mode" which can greatly reduces sensitivity and therefore detection range, with the aim of reducing the quantity of false alerts that are detected. Using City Mode in Western Australia however is not an option as it reduced Multanova detection range (which is already relatively short) to being uncomfortably low. Radar detectors used in Western Australia must always be kept on Highway mode, or high sensitivity mode.

Whistler Pro-78 has significantly reduced false alerts while in full sensitivity or Highway mode. Side by side comparisons and also individual test runs show Whistler Pro-78 has ~10% the false alerts of Beltronics STI or Valentine One. The Beltronics STI also has an AUTO mode that somehow filters out frequent false alert frequencies, but this also reduces sensitivity and detection range and is therefore not recommended for use in Western Australia. Beltronics STI also seems to suffer from a number of false Ka-band alerts, alerting to Ka-band when neither Whistler Pro-78 or Valentine One does. As Ka-band is licensed in Australia, a Ka-band alert from a Whistler Pro-78 will 99.9% of the time be an actual Multanova camera. The Pro-78 rarely has any false alerts in Ka-band. We suspect Valentine One does little or nothing to filter or block "false alerts" as the mentality here is that any threat could still be a police threat. This is very logical and may suit some seasoned veterans, but for the typical road user not very convenient being constantly blasted with numerous "false alerts." During our tests, we frequently saw a quantity of false alerts from both Valentine One and Beltronics STI where the Whistler Pro-78 remained silent.

The only way to further reduce false alerts would be via GPS integration, which is not available on any of the three detectors reviewed here. It is available on the Escort 9500i radar detector. However for non GPS based radar detectors, the Whistler Pro-78 offers vastly superior false alert reduction while remaining on the highest sensitivity setting. We are also aware that testing radar detectors side by side can lead to unreliable results, but for the purpose of false alert identification this does not really apply as results were also conclusive on stand alone tests. Typically having detectors side by side would generate more false alerts, but this combination appeared to operate very well side by side. This is potentially advantageous to this particular test as it is further acceptance of false alert interference caused by the actual radar detectors them selves.

Every false alert from a radar detector adds to the "cry wolf syndrome." Excessive false alerts desensitise a driver to any real police radar threat. Reduction of false alerts is critical.

"The Valentine One did extremely well for a 1991 design. In fact, as recently as 2000 I named it the test winner in my Automobile magazine test. But that was a long time ago. In the fast-paced world of consumer electronics, 2000 is ancient history and 1991 might as well be prehistoric." Radar Test Reviews.

The Valentine One radar detector was called "the chicken little of radar detectors" by Autoweek Magazine USA due to its excessive false alerts that cause the average user to simply tune out and turn their Valentine One radar detector OFF.

Surviving the heat and unique conditions of Western Australia.

Western Australia has more sunny days that most parts of the world and the climate here is hotter than places like Canada (Beltronics and Escort factory.) Radar detectors designed and manufactured in Canada simply do not go the distance here reliably. Metal cases get so hot, they can not be removed from the windscreen without burning your hand! We know this because customers trade them in all the time. We have lost count of how many 18 month old radar detectors we have traded in towards a new Whistler radar detector generally with a "service required" error. Whistler Pro-78 is manufactured from high grade plastic moulding, Beltronics and Valentine One are manufactured from metals. Radar Detectors with a black metal case get so hot in the Perth sun, that they will burn your fingers if you touch them! Outside of a 1 year warranty, an expensive item is hardly worth repairing. The cost of freight alone and time taken for a repair make it uneconomical to even bother. But don't take our word for it Escort radar service required fault, Beltronics radar service required fault. We are able to generally simulate a "service required" fault on our Beltronics STI test unit once it becomes very hot.

"If you leave it on for a while with the heater blowing near or in the direct sun, it will get really hot and flash "service required". I just unplug it, let it cool under the a/c for a few minutes, and it works fine." An internet review.

"Only thing about Valentine were the reports of the chip breaking when exposed to summer heat in the car. That would be a problem in Houston." An internet forum posting.

"Escort / Beltronics has said 95% of SERVICE REQUIRED messages are directly related to temperature or voltage." An internet forum posting.

Which is the best radar detector for Western Australia conclusion

Our opinion is just that, our opinion. When properly informed you are free to make up your own mind and ultimately a purchasing decision. We do however, have a lot of supporting documentation and evidence regarding detection range, false alert reduction and failure under heat and stress. Clearly different reviews place different emphasis on various categories. The main purpose of the information presented here is to highlight that a radar detector review that considers only maximum range on radar bands unrelated to Western Australia is ultimately flawed. A new car review does not only evaluate the top speed of the vehicle, but how it achieves this top speed like passenger comfort, manoeuvrability and operating economy (e.g. performance, usability, operation, and costs.) This methodology is applied to just about every consumer product EXCEPT RADAR DETECTORS. Why? Because generally the people reviewing radar detectors only review radar detectors and literally accept the other parameters as industry knowledge. These reviews are also often aimed at other people already involved in the industry or produced by people with ulterior motives to support brands they sell. However, for the typical uninitiated retail customer in Western Australia this extra information is still vitally important when considering which radar detector is "best" for you. The specifications of the devices tested were as follows;

Clearly Valentine One is a capable product, but in regards to easy of use, ownership and warranty support in Western Australia there are hidden implications. Beltronics STI is suitable primary for use in areas where radar detectors are illegal and would win this particular category without contest. However, our primary market and this review is aimed at radar detectors for use in Western Australia. The finding of our comparison between Valentine One, Whistler Pro-78 and Beltronics STI are;

A recent independent test substantiates our results seen here in Australia. Some suppliers continue to show out of date and widely inaccurate results that have been produced entirely by unqualified persons without any official quality control standards. These same suppliers use misleading scales to zoom to a small section of results, plus some tests are even based on older designs. Below are results from a recent US based test. We also have a wide variety of K, KA and Laser police equipment in our office for testing right here in Perth if you are interested in seeing results with your own eyes...

Once again don't take our word for it, check the following links and be sure to read them thoroughly. They are from web page forums written by actual users;

Of course, if price is no object and you demand the very best unique technology, you simply can not look past the DSI Computer with optional free radar detection upgrade. The DSI Computer is not included in this review as very simply, nothing compares and the DSI is in an entirely different class with no competition. Side by side comparisons are pointless.

June 2009 Update

Since this article was published, Whistler have further increased their sensitivity particularly in KA-band. New models called SE or Special Edition are now shipping from stock!

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Radar detector comparison: What is the best radar detector?